Food and Drink
Restaurant Review – Tokimeite
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food If some sort of culinary prohibition were introduced, limiting each national cuisine to be served only within its own motherland and thus forbidding any nation to serve even the slightest morsel of foreign food - would you choose to stay in Britain? It’s a question I’m asked surprisingly often, and my answer always ventures along the lines of applying for an ID card and boarding the first one way 12-hour flight to Tokyo. Yes,...
Beer of the Week – Rocky Head Zen
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Strength: 4.8% Brewed: Southfields, London Set up by a small group of friends in the summer of 2012, Rocky Head Brewery is heavily inspired by the American craft beer scene, operating as a microbrewery from a site in South West London. Although a somewhat ramshackle organisation, using equipment sourced from various sources, the brewery is becoming known to produce some of London’s finest beer, having even collaborated with the likes of Selfridges in order...
Food & Drink Guide to St. Patrick’s Day in London
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Although many of the year’s St Patrick’s Day events took place last weekend, notably featuring the huge parade and celebrations in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, many of London’s bars and restaurants have plans for this week, with many specifically taking place on the traditional date of March 17th. Here’s our last minute guide to some of the best food and drink events taking place in celebration of the Patron Saint of Ireland for this...
Restaurant Review – Stock Burger Co. Brighton
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food With an already strong independent restaurant scene, it’s no secret that Brighton has witnessed a boom in popularity of the American-inspired gourmet burger trend in recent years. What with the local-favourite Burger Brothers close to the North Laines, gaining rapturous rave reviews from visitors, as well as the opening of MEATliquor, a London export that’s joined various restaurant chains within the city. At the very end of last year, InterContinental Hotels Group jumped on...
Restaurant Review – Mr Fogg’s Tavern
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food At some point during our lives, many of us have spent at least one evening (still one too many) within the confines of an overly ostentatious themed pub or restaurant. Those that inspire us to lie, even to ourselves, in the hope of forgetting an establishment that is to good taste what Donald Trump is to common decency. Establishments that reap every opportunity to charge through the nose for an experience that’s often best...
The Weekly Cocktail Recipe – Nightjar’s ‘Druid’s Botanist Cup’
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Born from a competition between five of London’s top bartenders – Druid’s Botanist Cup uses Islay’s first and only dry gin – The Botanist – and is currently available from the award-winning Nightjar in Shoreditch until the end of this month. Created by Nightjar’s Nikolett Maczo, the key focus and inspiration for the drink is foraging, using a range of specialty ingredients such as mahonia flowers and rowan berries both handpicked from Haggerston Park....
Beer of the Week – East London Brewing Company Jamboree Golden Ale
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Strength: 4.8% Brewed: Leyton, London Set up by a husband and wife team with the aim of crafting a range of high-quality, traditional British beers, the idea for the local community driven East London Brewing Company came about while the pair were expecting their second child. Now operating from a site in Leyton, the 10-barrel microbrewery produces draught and bottled beers, with a total of seven regular ales, as well as the odd seasonal...
Restaurant Review – Pharmacy 2
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Within some of London’s trendiest restaurants, the world of art is rarely far disconnected. A recent prime example is that of Mayfair’s Sexy Fish from Richard Caring’s Caprice Holdings: which, like most of his group’s restaurants was an instant smash hit addition to the area’s dining scene, with a table for two during a peak dinner hour still painfully arduous to secure. Aside from the apparently exceptional fish, and the celebrity clientele that frequent...
Restaurant Review – Novikov Asian
By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food As is the case with most of its neighbouring powerhouses, Novikov – the eponymous London flagship of Russian restaurateur Arkady Novikov – is very much a place to be seen. A social media friendly temple of excess, frequented by women that dress and often look like supermodels, joined by men (often three times their age) that look like characters from GoodFellas, and very little in between. Having opened a few years ago, the huge...